March 17, 2012

The title wasn’t mistyped. Megan Leavey is a (former) Marine. She was a dog handler. During a deployment to Afghanistan, she lost both of her legs, but her dog is unharmed. The dog is now ready for retirement… but the Corps isn’t sending him to be with some new owner.

On deployment number two to Afg, we had several of these dynamic duo teams that made a big difference. Well one day one of those teams was attacked by an IED. The Marine lost both legs. The dogs condition unknown. The Marine was medivacd to a shock trauma unit where he was saved and sedated. Guess what the first question to the surgeons was just before they put him under? How is my dog?

This where I came in at about 0100 in the morning I was involved in the fight still in our Command Center when I got a radio call asking how the dog was. After confirming a couple times we sent the radio traffic that the dog made it through without s=a (sic) scratch. The wounded Marine was already heavily sedated and flown to Germany, then the States. The clock started. After the fight was completed we began devising a savvy plan that only Marines can to have that dog at the Marines bedside when he came out of surgery. I had about 72ish hours. Through some cigar trading and care package donating, the dog, was on an Air Force aircraft to the States just behind the Marine. I would have paid to have seen the Marines face when he woke up from surgery and the fist thing he saw was his loyal K9 Marine waiting for him by his bed.

Unfortunately for Sergeant Rex, their intentions involve him being put down. Fortunately for Cpl. Leavey, we have the interwebs! Spread it far, spread it wide. Maybe with enough pressure, they’ll send the dog where he needs to be. Our Marines don’t get put down when they get home. He should be no different.